Skip to main content
Dessert

Almond Novelties

A buttery almond and pistachio cake flavored with saffron.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Almond and pistachio match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 693 recipes. Both carry alpha-pinene, which smells pine, turpentine. The science ↓

Almond Novelties

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the batter

  1. Beat the butter and sugar to a light cream.

  2. Add the eggs two at a time, beating well until all are incorporated.

  3. Chop the pistachios finely and mix them into the cream.

  4. Add the ground almonds and enough saffron to achieve a bright golden color.

  5. Work in the flour until combined.

Bake and serve

  1. Butter a baking tin and spread the mixture evenly.

  2. Mark the surface in diamond shapes.

  3. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until golden.

  4. Divide the cakes at the marks.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Almond + pistachiotop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together693 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  2. Pistachio + saffrontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together88 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  3. Almond + saffrontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together306 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Pistachio + nutstop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together425 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  5. Flour + almondtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,673 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Butter
Creamed with sugar, it traps air and gives the cake a tender, rich crumb.
Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure and richness as they set in the oven.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the cake together once baked.
Ground sweet almonds
Add moisture, fine texture and nutty flavor without much gluten development.
Pistachio nuts
Add flavor, crunch and color through the batter.

The step that matters

Beating the eggs in gradually. Adding eggs two at a time and beating well lets the emulsion form. If the eggs are added too quickly, the butter cream can separate and the batter becomes curdled, which affects the final texture.

Swap the nuts

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, almond, sugar, butter, pistachio, egg, saffron):

  1. Cashew nutfits better
  2. Hazelnutfits better
  3. Chestnutfits better
  4. Nutsthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, almond, sugar, butter, pistachio, egg, saffron. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

You might also like

Pistachio Ice CreamPistachio Ice Cream36 recipesAlmond Sponge CakeAlmond Sponge Cake26 recipesAlmond CustardAlmond Custard22 recipesAlmond WafersAlmond Wafers22 recipes